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Gender and Serial Killers Essay

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The stereotype that exists for individuals who commit serial murder is one that mainly includes males of a specific race. However, it is now known that white males are not the only individuals who commit serial murder. Men and women from all racial and ethnic backgrounds and socio-economic statuses have been found to be serial murderers. Although this information has been presented to society, the cultural schema of the white male serial killer is still prevalent. The assumptions that involve serial murderers often include two aspects, the serial murderer is male and the serial murder is a type of “lust murder”, often involving sexual crimes by a sadist (Keeney and Heide, 1995). Keeney and Heide (1994) define serial murder to be the …show more content…

According to Jurik and Russ (1990) compared to men, women frequently kill intimates or people they had very close, social relationships with such as family or friends. Additionally, there is hardly any overkill with victims of female serial murderers. Many victims of female serial killers often have no signs of sexual assault, body mutilation, or dismemberment. Women who murder often do not torture their victims prior to their death, unlike males who are seen to engage heavily in torture. For their choice of weapon, many female serial killers used some form of poison or suffocation, known as covert methods, to kill off their victims.
Also, female murderers often do not engage in the traditional stalking behavior that is found in the phenomenon of serial killing. For female serial killers, the organization of the crime scene displayed characteristics of both organized and disorganized crime. Organized crime scenes are usually the result of intense planning of the crime by the offenders, whereas disorganized crime scenes are the result of spontaneous murders with little planning (Schurman, 2000). Females often have different reasons for committing serial murders than men. These reasons are mainly thought to be instrumental goals, meaning that they would receive something in return for murdering the victim such as insurance

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